t400 wont boot w/o reseting little battery behind palm rest

[acometiscoming]

First, my t400 would only boot with power cord unplugged. Then it stopped booting altogether. I read to press the power button 10 times and hold it on the tenth time and to unscrew the palm rest to unplug the little battery for 30 seconds. That is the only way I can get it to boot now. I picked up a new battery today thinking it might be related but that hasn't solved it. Any ideas?

[acometiscoming]

anyone?

[Colonel O'Neill]

So every time you shut it down, you have to reset the CMOS battery before it'll boot?

[acometiscoming]

Yes, I unplug the little cord connecting the CMOS battery to the motherboard for around 30 seconds. Then I plug the computer back in and boots up but that's the only way.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Next time it boots, go into BIOS and do a Reset to Factory Settings for the BIOS.

[acometiscoming]

i tried reseting to default setting in the BIOS, but it still won't boot using the power button.

[richk]

does the power button do anything when it is running? (it should shutdown or standby or something, depending on settings) I am trying to figure out if the button itself works. If the power button is working, try resetting AMT. (assuming you have it) Boot into the BIOS. Under config, AMT will be listed near the bottom. If you have it, disable it and save settings. Upon restarting, you will be prompted to unconfigure it. Reply "Y". Next time you restart, you can enable it again.

[acometiscoming]

I looked at it closer and to get it to start i don't press the power button at all. I unplug the power cord and after unplugging the CMOS battery for awhile i just plug the power cord back in and it starts up. The first thing i see as it starts up is an error message about a bad CMOS checksum and then i have to change the date/time in the BIOS or it yells at me to do it. After all that it boots into windows 7. Once it is in windows no matter what i do to change the settings of what the power button does it still doesn't do anything. I can restart it fine but once i shut it down it the CMOS battery needs to be reset to get it going again. I tried disabling the AMT thing but once i shut it down it goes back to being enabled.

[richk]

If you unplug the CMOS, it will start when you apply power. It sounds like your keyboard is bad. Is your machine under warranty?

[Harryc]

Do you have a dock?

[acometiscoming]

no it's not under warranty anymore.

what do you mean by dock?

[Harryc]

This - http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 61297.html

[acometiscoming]

nope

[richk]

I would get a replacement keyboard. That is my guess.

[Mark@Lenovo]

Rich,

That's a reasonable guess. I think I remember something abut of this a year ago and I thought we addressed it via BIOS update.

acometiscoming,

What BIOS version are you running? Check our support site and update if you aren't running a current BIOS.

Mark

[Monck]

Try turn off it (by looong pressing power button), when you log into windows.

[acometiscoming]

I updated the bios to the latest version. I posted this same question on some other forums and they recommended replacing the backup/cmos battery. I ordered a new one and we'll see if that helps.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Like richk suggested, have you tried a different keyboard? Might just be that the power button on this one doesn't work.

[yak]

Looks like a bad keyboard to me as well. Try Monck's suggestion. Boot it up and press the power button for 10 seconds. It should shut down. This is not configurable like the short press so it should work no matter how your software it set up.

If it doesn't work then it's definitely a bad keyboard. Get a new one.

[acometiscoming]

ok i have a wireless keyboard i can try that connects through usb. i'll let you know when i get the chance after work. if it is the keyboard, is it possible to replace that on the t400 itself?

[Colonel O'Neill]

I don't see how you plan to start up the computer with the wireless keyboard. You can buy a compatible keyboard off Craigslist/eBay/etc. and replace it yourself. After taking off the palmrest it's just one more screw and the keyboard comes out (remember to detach the ribbon cable).

[acometiscoming]

Colonel O'Neill, yeah i forgot the wireless keyboard has no power button. i'll check out ebay for a replacement unless anyone else knows a better place. the new cmos battery didn't change anything.

[Harryc]

... yeah i forgot the wireless keyboard has no power button.

Thus the reason for my earlier question about a dock...it has a power button .

[acometiscoming]

Thanks for the help guys, i just installed new keyboard and all is well!